My trip to Chicago

[ed@das.llnl.gov (Edward Suranyi)]

Well, I guess I should tell you about my trip to Chicago to see Vickie
and Chris.  Vickie said she might be late meeting me at the airport,
but as it turns out she got there on time, despite the fact that my
plane was actually a little early.  Never having seen each other, I
was wondering how I'd recognize her.  Not to worry. She held a copy
of _Breakthrough_, the greatly missed Canadian fanzine, so that its 
cover faced the gate.  I spotted it as soon as I walked into the terminal.

Unfortunately, Chris was sick, so he had gone to bed before we got 
to their apartment.  In fact, I didn't see him until the following 
afternoon.  He thought he had the flu, but a couple of days later
he learned that he'd been over the flu for a while -- what he really
had was a case of walking pneumonia!  But he seemed to be a lot better
when I left.

How can I describe their apartment to anyone who hasn't seen it?  Well,
it's obvious that they've just moved from a much larger place --
it was quite cluttered, with CDs, LPs, and videocassettes sprewn all
over the place.  Kate posters and pictures everywhere -- several of 
them autographed.  Whole dresser drawers full of Kate stuff.  They
showed me some of their favorite items.  One thing I found wonderful
was a letter from Kate to Chris and Vickie, which they received out
of the blue.  It simply said something like, "I've been hearing a lot
about you, so I thought I'd say hi!"  The kicker is that Kate personally
addressed the envelope -- the handwriting is definitely hers!

Chris showed me the video for "The Infant Kiss" that he made out of 
the movie "The Innocents" (which was the basis for Kate's song).  I'd
never seen it before.  It looks fabulous, especially projected onto
their giant screen.  As some of you might know, he sent it to Kate
and actually got a phone call back from her thanking him!  I hope
Chris doesn't mind my telling all of you that he actually has most
of this phone call on tape!  He seems overly embarrassed about it,
because he believes he comes off as a fool on it.  But everyone I know
who's heard it thinks he composes himself very well, considering.
"After all, I'd be flat on the floor" is a common comment.   Chris
merely sounds like he's hyperventilating.

During the week Vickie and Chris had to work, so I toured Chicago,
seeing the major sights.  In the evenings, we'd be up till one or
so, talking.  On the weekends we stayed up much later -- on Saturday
night Vickie and I were up almost till five AM!  No wonder I always
have trouble reaching them by phone on Sunday before one PM.

I advise any guests planning to stay at their place to ask if they
got their friend's sofabed yet.  If not, bring something to sleep on.
The place they gave me was a two-seat couch.  By the third night I
had worked out an arrangement whereby I put a chair beside the couch
and a used a particular pattern of pillows to create a somewhat flat
surface almost as long as I am -- and I'm not a tall person!

In addition their two cats had to be trapped in the kitchen all night;
otherwise they'd walk on me in the middle of the night, waking me up.
They sure didn't like it in the kitchen -- every few hours they started
to howl.

But I have to say that my trip was very well worth it, even with these
inconveniences, and I would do it over again any day.

On Saturday night, they held a Kate party, so I got to meet Michael
Mendelsohn, Michael Kaufman (who was REALLY enthusiatic about my
bringing the Comic Strip stuff), Jorn Barger, and Dave Datta.  Vickie
had found out a few days earlier that the guy who works at a certain
record store in Evanston was a big Kate fan, so he invited her,
sight unseen.  It turns out that Michael Kaufman knows him!

On Monday I also met Rico, who posts to love-hounds very occasionally.
It turns out that he and Jorn work across the hall from each other,
but they didn't know each other for quite a while.  One day, someone
came into Jorn's office, saw his poster of "The Sensual World", and
said that there's someone across the hall who has the same poster!

Back on Sunday night Michael Mendeson came back, with Charlotte Stern,
the person through whom he always posts.  Listen to this conversation 
I had with him:  (E: Ed, M: Mike)
M:  So where are you from?
E:  I lived in suburbs of Philadelphia until I was ten, then I moved
    to Montreal, where I lived for five years.
M:  Really?  I used to live in Montreal, too!
E:  Really?  Where?
M:  N.D.G. [That means Notre Dame de Grace, a district of Montreal.]
E:  I lived for three years in Cote Saint Luc.  [A suburb, not far from
    N.D.G.]
M:  I guess you must have known a lot of Jews there.  [Cote Saint
    Luc is about eighty percent Jewish.  At least it was when I lived
    there.  At this point I should point out that Mike wears a Yamacha.]
E:  I AM one!
M:  I suppose you went to Wagar High School.
E:  Yeah.  Did you go to N.D.G. High?
M:  No, I went to a private school.
E:  Which one?
M:  A Jewish school.  Herzeliah.  [I apologize if it's misspelled.]
E:  I've heard of that.  I have a cousin who went to Hebrew Academy.
M:  Who?
E:  Robert Koppel.
M:  HE'S your cousin??!  I go to the same synagague as him in
    Cote Saint Luc!  He lives in Toronto now [I know], but I see
    him on the holidays.

Talk about a small world!

Vickie promises me she'll post about her experiences getting the 
Chicago radio show real soon.  It's a wonderful story, and I'm glad
I was lucky enough to be there when it happened, but it's really
her story so I should let her tell it herself.

Well, I can't think of anything else to say.  Talk to you later,

Ed
ed@das.llnl.gov